Posts in
November 2006

OK – I’m not a lawyer and who am I to question the judgement of the top judges in the US, especially not the Supreme Court. Having said that I certainly feel that they must be living in a bubble. Maybe they don’t live in the real world. Where have they been these last few...Continue reading 'Questioning the Judges’ Judgement'.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said today Opec was striving for a “fair and stable” oil price, of around US$60 for US crude. Wary of supposed high fuel stockpiles in the world’s biggest fuel consumer the United States, some Opec ministers have raised the possibility of cutting output again in December, deepening a 1.2 million...Continue reading 'Saudis Aiming For A “Fair and Stable” Oil Price'.

It’s an old political cliché that we could be witnessing history in the making, but today in the Supreme Court in Washington that might just happen. We might just be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Bush Administration’s flawed and belligerent approach to climate change.

After a three-way meeting at the weekend with Nigerian government officials and local groups, Shell will start inspecting its facilities in the Western Niger Delta with a view to resuming 500,000 barrels per day of oil output. At the talks they agreed to start joint inspections of the Forcados and EA oilfields shut-down by a...Continue reading 'Shell to Inspect Damaged Nigerian Oil Facilities'.

Global Warming is creating a climate time bomb by storing enormous amounts of heat in the waters of the north Atlantic, UK scientists have discovered. Marine researchers at Southampton and Plymouth universities have found that the upper 1,500 metres of the ocean from western Europe to the eastern US have warmed by 0.015C in seven...Continue reading 'The Climate Change Time-Bomb'.

Laurie David, a producer of Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, has written a great article buried deep on the Washington Post website about the influence of Big Oil in American schools. Writes David: “At hundreds of screenings this year of An Inconvenient Truth, the first thing many viewers said after the lights came up...Continue reading 'Exxon’s Corruption of the Classroom'.

Emissions of carbon dioxide have accelerated sharply, according to a new analysis by the Global Carbon Project. It has calculated that, whereas emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, they are now rising at 2.5% per year. Dr Mike Rapauch of the Australian government’s research organisation CSIRO, who co-chairs...Continue reading 'CO2 Emissions Increasing Sharply'.

This week the EU will reveal new allocations for the next phase of the Europe-wide greenhouse gas emissions trading, a market worth 12 billion Euros and covering 11,000 installations throughout Europe. Since it was introduced many people have argued that the emission caps are too high in the scheme. Now some of Europe’s most influential...Continue reading 'EU ETS Scheme Faces Renewal'.

As the oil price continues to rise, many African oil-importing countries are beginning to look at ways of lessening their dependence on the fuel. Whilst continuing high oil prices are good news for the 13 African countries which are net oil exporters, for the 42 oil-importing countries, higher prices are creating serious challenges.

The European Commission is arguing that Europe should set a new, unilateral, target for cutting CO2 emissions, agree legally binding plans to boost renewable energy and bring cars into its carbon trading scheme. The secret blueprint, drawn up by the Commission’s vice-president, Gunther Verheugen, marks a significant shift in thinking as officials in Brussels seek...Continue reading 'EU’s Secret Rethink on Carbon Emissions'.